Question 1. To what extent does the movement/organization employ a transnational analysis to understand women’s, gender and/or sexuality issues?
UNITE HERE, being a labor union, recognizes that the state’s interests are not always in the interests of the workers. In that vein, UNITE HERE organizes individuals in order to force unfair employers to see to the needs of their employees. Following the thread of transnational theorizing, local needs are looked out for when the state is unable or unwilling to assist. Such needs include improvements in working conditions, such as hour limits, safety, vacation time, raises in wages, health care, day care and education. (See section II for a list of UNITE HERE’s workplace successes.)
In addition to bypassing the state to effect changes, however, UNITE HERE’s involvement in political lobbying indicates that UNITE HERE is not limited to a transnational approach in merely organizing locally. Instead, UNITE HERE works at the level of the national government in order to enact legislation protecting workers, such as its participation in lobbying for the defeat of "Fast Track" trade legislation, which would have given the President the authority to negotiate trade deals without Congressional approval.
According to Mary Hawkesworth (chapter 4 in Women, Democracy and Globalization in North America: A comparative study (2006)), much if not all of the United States’ backsliding in women’s issues is due to the rise of neoliberalism, which advocates for the downsizing of government in order to increase individual freedom. However, such a view results in the cutting back of government spending on social programs that primarily protect and support women, minorities and children. In light of neo-liberal movements, organizations such as UNITE HERE are becoming more necessary at the local level as the government withdraws its support for programs assisting those most in need of support: women and minorities who are subject to discrimination, pay inequity, job insecurity as top jobs go to white male breadwinners, etc.
In another thread of transnational feminist theory, Kathleen Staudt (2002, “Transcending nations: Cross-border organizing,” International Feminist Journal of Politics, 4:2, 197-215) advocates the use of labor unions as an alternative to her suggestion of higher-educational institutions as a source of weakly tied networks to encourage transnational organizing. She states: “[Labor unions and social movements] are a good illustration of the strength of weak ties, a strength further enhanced with transnational institutions with which they can engage to win occasional victories that legitimize their claims beyond their networks and into official governance mechanisms” (p. 208). UNITE HERE is good example of such a union: starting with small victories locally, UNITE HERE (ACTWU at the time) extended its focus to push for a Code of Conduct with the Clothing Manufacturers' Association in 1993 that required employers to respect international workers' rights. Such an effort demonstrates the union’s going beyond the local level to influence policy at the institutional level.
Question 2. What is the organization/movement’s overall purpose and which sectors of women (and/or men) does it “target” through its activities, policies, etc.?
UNITE HERE’s overall aim is to organize so that people can be in a better position to bargain for better working conditions for the workers in their constituent industries. UNITE HERE hopes to protect all workers in the garment, hospitality, laundry and associated industries. Workers in such blue-collar industries are mostly women and minorities (blacks, Latinos, Asians), many of whom are immigrants. As a matter of fact, UNITE, when it was the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, was formed in 1900 by a group of mostly Italian and Jewish immigrant women toiling in New York City sweatshops.
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